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40 video/audio lessons that take you step-by-step from idea to finished novel, taught by an award-winning, best-selling novelist and nationally acclaimed writing teacher. Easy, understandable, foundation elements essential for every genre.
Learn Skills, Secrets and most of all... Story.

A great book isn't written. . .it's rewritten.
Learn how to analyze and fix your novel’s problems with this unique “self-editing” system. . .then arm yourself with over 40 Advanced Fiction Classes and rewrite your story into publication.

You’ve worked too hard to quit now. Your story is nearly ready, but now it’s time to sell your novel. Learn the steps to creating a powerful proposal, secrets to pitching, the key elements to your marketing plan, a social media primer and how to create rabid reader fans.
It’s time to ignite your career.

I created a fun, over-the-top media mogul, Gigi Beaumont. She’s both a protagonist and antagonist. I know… I know… but I like to bend the rules.

When we first meet her in the heroine’s POV, Gigi is commanding, smartly dressed with perfect hair and nails.

But when we switched to Gigi’s point of view, we see a different character.

BEGIN:

Gigi

Even when she was a girl running barefoot through the hills of her Blue Ridge, Georgia, home, Gigi Beaumont had a nose for news.

She’d collect all the best gossip by sneaking around the wizened mountain women— who had a knack for telling a yarn or two—as they talked in the Mast General or strolled the town square. Then she wrote their stories and mimeographed them on the machine she found in the church basement, producing her first newspaper at the mature age of ten.

When Mama read it, whoa doggies, she gave Gigi a walloping for the ages on account of what she printed about the mayor’s wife. But when it turned out to be true—an affair with the sheriff—Mama became her chief distributor and fact finder.

Forty-six years later, she still crawled around behind the storytellers and gossips, hoping for the scoop. The scandalous story that would turn the world on its ear.

Here we have a bit of Gigi’s character history (which is very different from backstory!) and we see this woman is both hungry for success and gifted.

She’s following a life long passion, her superpower!

Hopefully I created descriptive elements to help the reader know who they are dealing with in this story.

We don’t need a lot of physical description here. We get it in other scenes.

What I needed in this scene was her heart. To show just who Gigi Beaumont was and why.

So, how do you know if you have a dynamic character that can rise off the page and grab the reader?

Here’s an example from award-winning author Deborah Raney’s novel, Home to Chicory Lane.

BEGIN

Still, despite his rough childhood, and a couple of wild years in high school, Chase had defied the odds and turned into a good guy. A really good guy. Their youth pastor from Langhorne Community Fellowship had taken Chase under his wing, and by the time Landyn was old enough to date, Chase was toeing a pretty straight line.

Well, except for the tattoo. Dad had come completely unglued when he heard Chase had gotten inked. She’d finally calmed him down by explaining that Chase’s Celtic cross––on his collarbone, so it was hidden under most of his shirts––was a symbol of his faith and of the permanence of God’s love for him.

END

I can see this guy, can’t you? Wild, tattooed, but wearing the symbol of his new faith. I get him right away. We see he’s “toeing” the line so perhaps he’s still trying to earn God’s favor. And the tattoo is kind of his reminder, “Behave yourself.” There are a lot of places Deb could’ve taken this. Great description.

After work Saturday Abby showered off the bakery smell, dried her hair, and pulled it back into a messy ponytail. She scrubbed the makeup from her face, exposing the freckles on her nose, and threw on a pair of jeans with her Eagles T-shirt, hating the way her hands trembled. It was just one date. Then he’d leave her alone.

END

What I love about this is her Eagles t-shirt and trembling hands. We know what kind of music she likes and that tells us a lot about the character. And trembling hands indicates she’s nervous. Funny to me she’s going on a date and trying to look her worst. No make up, sloppy ponytail. Makes me ask, “What’s going on here?” Denise took the opposite of the norm. Good idea to always flip a character or scene upside down and see what’s on the other side.

Here’s a few tips on how to create deeper characters:

1. Be specific. Get down to nitty gritty details. Tell a slice of life and use it to shape the character.

2. Utilize MBT’s Story Equation — the SEQ. Dark wound of the past, lie and fear, contrasted with greatest dream.

3. What’s your character’s happiest moment. (Be specific!)

4. Remember your story is about dealing with a specific issue (notice the word specific is used a lot) so build your details around that one event.

5. Go beneath the surface. Turn a character or situation upside down. Instead of a male character what happens if you make him a her? A character is more than hair or eye color, or skin color. More than she liked cafe mochas and the Beatles. Those are great but you must answer the question: Why does she like those things? Dig deep. Think outside the box.

When it comes to marketing, there is SO much advice out there. It’s hard to know who to listen to and what to do and what really works. I mean, sure, I’ve got thoughts. My marketing day job has taught me a lot and I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two during my few years in publishing, too.

Really, though, so much of marketing comes down to trial and error…figuring out what works for you.

But I do have on big marketing tip that I think is applicable whether we’re talking marketing via social media or events or speaking engagements or any kind of publicity…and it’s the thing that sets fiction marketing apart from non-fiction marketing. And it’s this:

Be. Fun.

Seriously…be fun. Your primary goal isn’t to be a resource or provide information or play expert.

It’s to draw readers in to your world…both your fictional world and your real life world. Whether you’re interacting on Facebook or trying to come up with publicity materials like postcards or bookmarks or writing an e-newsletter, ask yourself, “How am I making this a fun experience for the person on the other end?”

After all, nobody says no to fun. Except maybe Eeyore. And he’s a fictional donkey, so I don’t think we have to worry about him.

Do you have questions about adding a slice of fun to your marketing efforts? How have you seen other authors “be fun?”

Today we’re continuing our Featured Fiction Friday series, and celebrating one of the authors that helped make the our contest possible. Introducing Kathleen Fuller!

Q: Kathleen Fuller, can you tell us a little bit about your new book?

Can Anna Mae heed God’s call on her life, even if it means leaving behind everything she knows .. . and everyone she loves?

Ever since Anna Mae’s childhood friend Jeremiah left their Amish community, she’s questioned her own place in the Amish world. The Amish life feels as if it’s closing in on her, and with her mother trying to set her up with potential suitors, Anna Mae feels trapped in a life she’s not sure she wants anymore. But she’s never told anyone that she longs for a tiny taste of freedom—freedom that could be very costly.

When Jeremiah suddenly reappears in Middlefield to help his mentor, Yankee veterinarian Dr. Miller, new questions surface for Anna Mae, along with feelings she’d never fully acknowledged before.

As Anna Mae and Jeremiah rekindle their friendship, old feelings take on new meaning. Yet the question still lingers: What is God’s plan for her life? Should she stay, keeping loyal to her Amish family, or does God have a bigger plan—one that provides more freedom than she could imagine? The answers do not come easily, and the answer to God’s call may lie indifferent directions . . . for both of them.

Q: Do you have any writing advice for the MBT Audience?

Never stop learning. Whether you’re writing your first book or your thirtieth, always strive to learn something new about your craft.

Kathleen Fuller is the author of over twenty-five books, including the best-selling Hearts of Middlefield series. She and her husband James divide their time between Ohio and Arkansas. They have three awesome kids, three amazing dogs, and one sweet but very overwhelmed cat. Visit her website at www.kathleenfuller.com.

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